Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Update: Former porn actress tells New York Times she can't bear scrutiny of being linked to Weiner; Reporter Michael Barbaro seems to ignore the fact that some of the women in his story flirted publicly with Weiner

"The New York Times 'inadvertently' posted an article on the women involved in Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal — and then deleted it," Mackenzie Weinger reported for Politico.

As Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke noted at The New York Observer, "Clicking on the link to the story, once entitled 'For Women in Weiner Scandal, Indignity Lingers,' now takes readers to a page that reads 'Production Note: An article was posted on this page inadvertently, before it was ready for publication.'"

Bloomgarden-Smoke further adds, "According to a Google cache, the story, by political reporter Michael Barbaro, began, "For those on the other end of Anthony D. Weiner’s sexually explicit conversations, the episode damaged careers, disrupted educations."

"Customers still taunt Lisa Weiss," the story began. "'Talk dirty to me,' they joke. 'We know you like it.' Colleagues still refuse to speak with her. Strangers still bad mouth her in nasty online messages."

By searching for particular phrases, I was able to find more lines from the scrubbed New York Times story, although they might not necessarily be in the same order as Barbaro intended.

"'I cannot tell you the devastation,' said Ms. Weiss, a 42-year-old blackjack dealer who exchanged hundreds of explicit messages with Mr. Weiner, then a congressman, in 2010 and 2011."

"In spring 2011, Mr. Weiner sent a 21-year-old college student an image of himself in boxers, with an obvious erection. Now, the young woman, Gennette Cordova, is trying to reclaim her identity, online and off. Ms. Cordova, who has told The New York Times that she had chatted with Mr. Weiner about politics and not about sex, was shocked by his unwanted advances."

"She moved from Seattle to New York City, before Mr. Weiner's decision to run for mayor, eager to leave a place where she had become known for her ties to the unfolding drama."

"Traci Nobles, who has said that a roommate leaked her correspondence with Mr. Weiner without her permission, quit her job as as a fitness instructor in Georgia because of the unwanted attention."

"'It broke my heart,' she said in a little-watched interview for an online talk show. Determined to explain her online dalliance with Mr. Weiner and its impact on her life, Ms. Nobles proposed a book that has yet to be published."

"Ginger Lee, a former adult film actress with whom Mr. Weiner flirted online, said she could no longer bear the scrutiny of being linked to him."

"'Every new headline and news story about him reminds reporters and bloggers that we exist, and the cycle starts all over,' she said in a statement released by her lawyer."

"From what I’ve been able to piece together, there was a miscommunication among Times editors," Sullivan added. "Some thought the article was ready to go, and sent it on through the editorial production cycle. At least one other editor — higher up on the food chain — disagreed about its readiness and did not intend it to be published, at least not at that point."

Although Barbaro reported that the photo Anthony Weiner sent on May 27, 2011 contained an "obvious erection," many liberal bloggers argued that it looked like the former Democratic Congressman had stuck his arm in his boxers, which would explain why he later referred to it as some sort of a joke.

"Like everyone else involved in Weinergate, Lisa Weiss also received many nasty tweets from anonymous twitter 'socks', including calls for her to get fired from her job," I wrote. "Many of the nastier tweets were deleted later while others made their twitter accounts private."

The casino Weiss worked for "lost my business if you continue to deal there," someone using the handle @tweeterlaura sent to her at her @liberallisa account, "no grifters at the tables please."

Another nasty tweet by @bellaboo2220 told Weiss to "crawl into a hole," and that she should be "ashamed of [her]self and [her] whorish ways." Another tweet by the same account mocked Weiss using antisemitism, saying that she was "doing the Jews proud."

Weiss later told me that she almost lost her job after Radar Online published a picture of her dressed in her work uniform at the casino without her permission. She also claims that she never told the gossip website anything bad about Weiner, despite what they reported, and she remains an ardent supporter.

NY Times reporter seems to ignore that some of the women publicly flirted with Weiner

Some of the women flirted publicly with Weiner, which New York Times reporter Michael Barbaro may not have mentioned in his article. And instead of ducking the media, four women chose to release sexually charged texts and private messages they shared with the former Congressman. Of course, that doesn't mean any of the women deserve to be harassed or humiliated, but it is a fact that the paper should report if they republish his story.

Ginger Lee has complained that Weiner made unwanted advances to her, but she tweeted provocatively about the Congressman before he even followed her back. She also strangely drew attention to herself after the scandal broke by trading tweets with a Twitter account that was mocking Weiner in a sexual manner. I've asked her on Twitter many times why she did that, but she has ignored my tweets.[Editor's Note: My laptop is giving me fits, but I will add screenshots and links proving this as soon as possible.].

For the last two years, Barbaro has ignored my complaints that he reported Weiner made "unwanted advances" to Cordova, since she has argued otherwise. Cordova has strenuously argued that the only flirtatious message she ever received from Weiner was the infamous underwear tweet sent on May 27, 2011.

Nobles, Lee and Cordova wrote flirty tweets or public Facebook messages before the Weinergate scandal broke out, which, again, is something that the New York Times should be including in this article, that some of his defenders are referring to as a "hit piece," even though they didn't read it. While most of the public messages were mild, Nobles made many crude sexual references on Weiner's public Facebook account.

On October 29, 2010, after Traci Nobles left a Facebook comment that joked, "Word Weiner. How BIGGGG?" she was reprimanded by an angry supporter who admonished, "Traci, that's very childish. How old are you? Are you old enough to be on Facebook?"

Nobles left a few bizarre messages that referred to Weiner's "balls" in the fall of 2010, as most media outlets neglected to report after the scandal broke in the spring of 2011.

"Ahhhhhhhhh, if only Obama had those super-sized Weiner balls!" Nobles left on Weiner's public Facebook account on November 12, 2010. "A girl can dream. Keep it fired up Weiner! I heart you!!"

On November 3, 2010, Nobles rued that "they can't all be blessed with those balls, unfortunately for us!"

"Keep on keepin on 'weiner and balls'!" Nobles wrote on November 16, 2010. "MUAW! Luv u."

On November 10, 2010, Nobles wrote, "Can I sit in your lap? I love a good tough Weiner!" A Weiner supporter advised Nobles to "restrain" herself, since it was a "public page."